Avaliação da percepção de qualidade de vida em diferentes grupos de idosos da cidade de Carneirinho-MG

Abstract

Population aging is a phenomenon experienced in Brazil and worldwide. Increased life expectancy and the number of elderly, has made the society rethink its approach to old age. From this perspective, there is a need to not only add years to their lives, but life quality to those years. Aiming to ensure quality of life for older people, there are actions guided by the principles and strategies of health promotion aimed securing them what is the right of older people: a healthy aging. Based on this premise we have developed a project called 'Healthy Ageing' with a group of elderly in the city of Carneirinho - MG. The project goal was to carry out weekly activities in education, prevention and health promotion in old age, this project was conducted by a multidisciplinary team. This study aimed to compare the perception of quality of life described by the elderly who participate in this group with the elderly who do not participate in this, verifying whether there were differences in terms of perception of quality of life, among men and women, and also getting to know the reasons why many seniors do not participate in the group. The study comprised a sample of 60 elderly (women and men), and of these, 30 participated in weekly meetings and others 30 did not participate. The questionnaires WHOQOL-OLD and BREF were applied for 60 seniors, and later, interviews were conducted with 20 participants: 10 with the group participants and 10 to the non-participants. Through the results we found that the participant group showed a better perception of quality of life global in the areas: autonomy, past-present-future activities, social participation, death and dying and Total (WHOQOL-OLD), and also in the areas physical, psychic, environment and Total (WHOQOL-BREF) in relation to the non-participant group. There were no significant differences in the perception of quality of life for men and women. The women participants had higher scores for autonomy, past-present-future activities, social participation and Total (WHOQOL-OLD), and in physical, psychological, environmental and Total areas (WHOQOL-BREF) in relation to the female non-participant group. Among men, the participant group also had higher scores compared to the non-participant group in the areas: sensory functioning, autonomy, social participation and Total (WHOQOL-OLD), and in environment and Total (WHOQOL-BREF), these data were also observed in the interviews. We found that, through group activities, aiming the objectives and principles of health promotion, the group participating in the project "Healthy Ageing" related better results to the overall perception of quality of life, but also in several areas when compared to the non- participant group, which was also corroborated in interviews.